Microsoft Vs. AWS Vs. Google Cloud Earnings Q1 2024 Face-Off

CRN compares sales growth rate, cloud market share, total revenue, operating income and more from Microsoft, Google Cloud and AWS’ recent first-quarter 2024 earnings results.

The cloud sales results are in for first-quarter 2024 as the world’s three top cloud computing companies—Microsoft, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services—continue to battle for global cloud market share.

Combined, these three cloud leaders generated more than $61 billion in total sales during the first-quarter 2024 calendar year.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon all recently reported their quarterly financial cloud earnings results for the first three months of 2024, with each company reporting record quarterly cloud sales thanks to double-digit growth rates.

“There is much for cloud providers to be cheerful about, with the three market leaders all seeing their growth rates increase substantially over the last two quarters,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, in an email to CRN.

First-Quarter 2024 Cloud Services Spending Hits $76 Billion

In terms of first-quarter 2024 worldwide cloud market share, AWS, Microsoft and Google combined won 67 percent of the $76 billion global cloud infrastructure services market, according to new data from Synergy Research Group.

The $76 billion in worldwide spending on cloud infrastructure services during first-quarter 2024 represents a 21 percent year-over-year increase, or an increase of $13.5 billion, compared with first-quarter 2023.

“In short, this was a really good quarter for the cloud market with growth rates bouncing back from the relative lows seen through much of 2023,” said Dinsdale.

Looking at the earnings numbers for each cloud company, Google Cloud generates sales from the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), platform services, infrastructure, collaboration tools like Google Workspace and from other IT services for customers. AWS makes revenue from its infrastructure and platform services, as well as other cloud services. It is key to note that Microsoft does not provide exact Azure sales figures to the public. Instead, Microsoft combines Azure, SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, Nuance, GitHub, Microsoft Partner Network, and enterprise and partner services, all under its Intelligent Cloud umbrella.

Here are the exact revenue figures, sales growth percentages, cloud market share and operating income for Google Cloud, Microsoft and AWS in first-quarter 2024, as well as parent company financial results.

First-Quarter 2024 Total Revenue/Annual Run Rate

Microsoft: $26.7 billion/$107 billion

AWS: $25 billion/$100 billion

Google Cloud: $9.6 billion/$38.4 billion

Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business captured $26.7 billion in total sales during the quarter, meaning Microsoft’s cloud group now has a run rate of $107 billion.

AWS generated just over $25 billion in revenue during first-quarter 2024. This means Amazon’s cloud business now has an annual run rate of $100 billion.

Google Cloud reported total sales of $9.6 billion for first-quarter 2024. This shows that Alphabet’s cloud business currently has an annual run rate of $38.4 billion.

These first-quarter 2024 sales results represent record quarterly revenue for all three cloud companies.

First-Quarter 2024 Sales Growth

Google Cloud: 28%

Microsoft: 21%

AWS: 17%

Out of the three cloud giants, Google Cloud reported the highest year-over-year sales growth rate at 28 percent. Google Cloud sales increased from roughly $7.5 billion in first-quarter 2023 to $9.6 billion as of first-quarter 2024.

Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business increased 21 percent year over year, from $22.1 billion to $26.7 billion in first-quarter 2024. For Microsoft, server products and cloud services revenue increased 24 percent driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 31 percent.

Sales growth from AWS increased from $21.4 billion in first-quarter 2023 to over $25 billion during first-quarter 2024, representing a 17 percent increase.

AWS: 31%

Microsoft: 25%

Google Cloud: 11%

Global enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services was over $76 billion in first-quarter 2024, an increase of 21 percent year over year, according to Synergy Research Group.

AWS won first place with 31 percent share of the global cloud market, a title AWS has held for over a decade, although Microsoft has been slowly narrowing the market-share gap over the past few years.

Microsoft took home second place with 25 percent share of the worldwide cloud services market.

Google Cloud won 11 percent share of the global cloud market. The company has been hovering around 10 percent share to 11 percent share over the past few years, firmly cementing itself as the world’s third largest cloud computing provider.

Other cloud market-share leaders in first-quarter 2024 included Alibaba at 4 percent market share and Salesforce at 3 percent cloud share.

Operating Income

Microsoft: $12.5 billion

AWS: $9.4 billion

Google Cloud: $900 million

Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business’ operating income was $12.5 billion during first-quarter 2024, representing 32 percent growth year over year compared with $9.5 billion in first-quarter 2023.

AWS’ operating income for first-quarter 2024 was $9.4 billion, up from $5.1 billion year over year. This means AWS’ operating income improved by 84 percent from first-quarter 2023 to first-quarter 2024.

Google Cloud’s operating income for the first quarter was $900 million, up from $191 million year over year. Prior to 2023, Google Cloud’s operating income was always in the red.

Parent Company First-Quarter 2024 Results

Amazon: $143 billion

AWS parent company Amazon generated $143 billion in net sales during the first quarter of 2024, a 12 percent increase compared with $127 billion in first-quarter 2023. Operating income for Amazon was $15.3 billion in first-quarter 2024, compared with $4.8 billion in first-quarter 2023.

For first-quarter 2024, AWS accounted for 17.5 percent of Amazon’s total sales.

Google/Alphabet: $80.5 billion

Google Cloud parent company Alphabet generated a total of $80.5 billion in sales, up 15 percent compared with $69.8 billion in first-quarter 2023. Opearting income for Alphabet was $25.4 billion during the quarter, up from $17.4 billion in first-quarter 2023.

Google Cloud accounted for 12 percent of Alphabet’s total revenue in the quarter.

Microsoft: $62 billion

Microsoft generated nearly $62 billion in revenue during first-quarter 2024, representing an increase of 17 percent compared with roughly $53 billion in first-quarter 2023. Total operating income for Microsoft was $27.6 billion in first-quarter 2024, up 23 percent year over year. Net income was $21.9 billion, up 20 percent year over year.